August Favourites

Hi all! I have no idea where this month has gone, it literally flew by! I just had a thought, why not go through a quick run down of nail polish products I have been loving in the month of August? Wouldn’t hurt would it?

I will keep this post strictly to nailcare and polish shades, the products I have most often picked up and used on my nails.

BASE & TOP COAT

If I am honest, I don’t tend to mix up base and top coat too often, but Nails Inc rule the roost on my nail beds. Their Nailkale Superfood basecoat really works for my nails and I definitely notice when I don’t use it and stray using other similar products.

An absolute staple in my routine – see my review blog post to find out all about it.

However top coat is where I dabble more often with different brands. I am saying this but Nails Inc’s Kensington Caviar topcoat is giving my nails heavy duty wear and gloss that I need at the moment. It has been my go to top coat in every manicure/pedicure this month.

MANICURE SHADES

Shade wise, my polish choices in the month of August were all over the place. My favourite recently purchased polish I wore quite frequently, was Topshop’s nail paint in Aurora, a lovely green to gold duochrome.

I really love this shade, it goes with so many things and look so luxe on the nails. This shade is a dupe for Aggie from Zoya’s Flair collection, at a fraction of the price from Topshop. Even with my fair skintone, I really like this shade on and I received so many compliments whilst wearing it.

The wear time was the only bug bear of this polish. By day 4, with tip wear clearly visible, I would be ready to re-do my manicure. But I found, with extra top coat after the first few days, extended the wear time on this polish.

My latest unexpected polish discovery was while perusing around a pharmacy waiting for my boyfriend to get some bandages (don’t ask!). I noticed the Mavala stand and picked up a lovely shade Black Oyster, a dead ringer for Essie’s new shade Frock and Roll from their Leggy Legend collection which I had been eyeing up.

This is such a good dupe and a perfect small size to try and test the shade. I don’t tend to wear black shades too often just because of staining and yellowing, but I had neither of those issues from this polish. It looks so beautiful on the nail, it really shimmers with top coat. A new love that I will definitely pulling out over the coming months.

Two shades I keep pulling out are both Gel Effect formulas, the first my favourite dupe for Nails Inc’s Baker St, from No7’s Gel Hi-Shine nail polish range in the shade Persian Blue.

This formula is great for the price point and just pops on hand nails, your eyes are immediately drawn to it. It lasts well on the nails and goes with so many things, I can’t stop myself using it on my hand nails.

I popped both the No7 and Nails Inc colours on my hand and could not tell the difference other than the slight difference in wear time. But colour wise, a perfect match!

The other shade which featured heavily on my nails is Colville Mews from Nails Inc, a lovely creamy beige. It is so stark in tone, it almost gives colour to my pale mitts and looks very chic on the nails. I love the formula of these gel effect polishes, which is the main reason why I wore this shade so often. I was getting a good 5-7 days worth of wear and goes with pretty much everything! No down sides to this polish favourite!

TOE POLISH SHADES

On toes I had two shades appearing on my nails beds most often in two beautiful classic reds, that are main stays in my collection.

Nails Inc’s Victoria is a deep black cherry shade and a perfect glossy red toned neutral, an almost black shade and one polish I would never be without on either hands or toes.

Victoria & Albert, a beautiful bright red is currently what I have on my toes as I write this post.

It’s got such a great formula and last extremely well on my nails, I have to take it off before it ever chips or looks like it is looking a bit tired on the nail.

It also brighten up my toe nails and suits my currently pale skin tone. I really love this shade!

Well there was my polish favourite for the month of August. Any polishes you can recommend me to use in September?

What are your current favourite polishes?

Let me know in the comments.

FYI: For more information on my other most used products and about my general manicure routine, please check out my Manicure Routine Series.